Agencies
The Supreme Court has imposed an “exemplary cost” of Rs 2 crore on the Telangana-based Mahavir Institute of Medical Science while holding it guilty of “deception and fraud” for projecting people with no serious health issues as patients with a view to get renewal for admission of students by showing that it was complying with the minimum standards.

The bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao also upheld the government’s decision to not allow the institute to admit 150 students to MBBS course for 2018-19 academic session.

After inspecting the institute’s facilities, the Executive Committee of the Medical Council of India (MCI) had recommended to the government to not approve its “application.for renewal of permission for the third batch of 150 students in MBBS course for the academic year 2018-2019”.

On May 31 this year, the government had accepted the MCI recommendation following which the institute had filed the writ petition in the Supreme Court.

“After considering the submissions of the petitioner and the material on record, we are of the opinion that the decision of the government of India not to grant approval does not warrant interference. The assessors, after a physical inspection, found that a number of patients were not genuine,” the bench said.